In case you think life has slowed me down in Key West, you’re somewhat right, but it’s been only 97 here, cooler than some places in the US and as cool as it is for my brothers in the snow belt of upstate New York.

A guide here kept referring to this vessel as a “chug” although I thought he said “tug.” Guess the story? See end of post.

Chickens roam everywhere and constant need to cross roads here in the Conch Republic, a micronation with its own passport, coin, and more. For a list of numerous other “micronations,” created as vehicles for agenda self-promotion, click here. As the so-called mayor of the “sixth boro,” I find the idea of declaring micronation status for the waters around NYC very exciting. Feedback?

Greetings to the crew of Yankee, built 1982 in Atlantic City. More Key West schooners . . . soon.

Fotos I missed: sailing on this dreamlike expanse of Gulf of Mexico, we saw scores of flying fish and ballyhoo . . . but nary a one consented to being on a tugster shot. Imagine that!

Behold Fort Jefferson, 70 miles west of Key West, 900 … east of Brownsville TX, 200 south of Tampa, and less than 100 north of Havana.

Here’s one way to get there at just under 30 mph. The Yankee name caught my attention… not because I live in NYC but because I used to live north of Cape Ann, MA, where a whale watching vessel refers to itself as part of the “Yankee fleet.” Well, same company has operated in both Key West and Gloucester. Furthermore, this vessel was built by Gladding Hearn of Somerset, MA, and the captain grew up in Hampton Beach, NH . . . where I lived back in the late 80s!! Gladding Hearn has built numerous ferries, pilot boats, and other vessels for the sixth boro.

And for the unfrazzling bowsprite . . . herself galivanting where time gets forgotten, a foto of WPG-78 aka USS Mohawk, resplendent in gray and gray and gray, whose story reaffirms the point I tried to make the other day in reference to vessels in Mayport.

So . . . if you are artistically inclined . . . should an eventual “sixth boro” micronation have its own flag?

OK . . . back to the “chug.” The National Park rangers have decided to house this vessel, which was instrumental in getting Cuban refugees “dry-footed” onto US soil, at Fort Jefferson. “Chug” derives from the nise the automobile engine makes while the vessel is underway. chug-chug-chug . . . Too bad they didn’t keep this 1951 Chevy truckboat. Maybe Mel Fisher‘s crew will seek it out one of these days.

How’s about this for a once- and future-newspaper ad? How many years before this service gets re-established? Here’s a business idea: trips across the Florida Strait on replicas of Hemingway’s Pilar . . . on converted 1951 Chvy trucks and vintage Buicks? I bet it’ll happen.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp. More from the Conch Republic soon.

Oh, also, I hereby claim rights to any and all sixth-boro micronationalistic paraphernalia.

YOUNG AMERICA was built in Port Jefferson in 1976 (concrete hull) …currently out-of-documentation.
YANKEE in the picture was built in 1982 in Atlantic City. off. #661681. She used to run excursions off Wildwood and Cape May.